NXT
Date: April 1, 2015
Location: Full Sail
University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Corey
Graves, Rich Brennan
Reviewed by Tommy Hall
Wrestlemania has come
and gone, but that really doesn't mean much in NXT. Last week we saw
Finn Balor come up just short in his match against Kevin Owens for
the NXT Title. That means we're in need of a new #1 contender as we
wait on Sami Zayn to make his return to continue the war with Owens.
Let's get to it.
Opening sequence.
Here's the returning
Sami Zayn to open the show. He's been overseas in Abu Dhabi for a
great tour but the timing was interesting as he's had a lot of things
to think about. It should have been the time of his life but all he
can think of is Kevin Owens. The Kevin Owens that he was in the ring
with isn't the same one he's known for twelve years.
He's changed as a human
being and Sami could see it when he looked into Kevin's eyes. Sami
has had time to think and formulate a plan, and here it is: use his
rematch to get HIS NXT Title back, but the number one thing on his
list is to give Owens the beating he deserves. Once those two are in
the ring together again, it's going to be gold.
Rhyno vs. ???
Rhyno throws him across
the ring with a belly to belly and the Gore is good for the pin at 25
seconds.
Post match Rhyno says
he's here to make a statement by winning the NXT Title. It doesn't
matter if it's Sami Zayn, Finn Balor or Kevin Owens, because it all
ends with a Gore. This is the perfect way to use someone like Rhyno
and the fans are still into him, so what's bad in this scenario?
Former bodybuilder Dana
Brooke is here in two weeks.
Last week after the
match, Kevin Owens says it only matters that he won because no one is
taking his title away.
Bayley vs. Emma
This is called a Divas
match. I really hope that's a one time line and not a trend. Last
week Emma slapped Bayley for not turning her back on the fans. In
other words, set it up one week and pay it off in the future. Emma
still does all of her old shenanigans but pulls herself into the ring
under the bottom instead of flipping in. She tries to clown around
with Bayley before the match gets going and the first minute only
sees them trade lockups.
Bayley gets annoyed
with the slow pace and nails her with a running shoulder for two
before walking into a clothesline. Emma still doesn't seem to want
to fight that hard so Bayley sends her into the buckle a few times
but gets caught in the Emma Lock. The Emma Sandwich (Graves: “The
what?”) gets two but Emma spends too much time posing and gets
caught in a sunset flip for the pin at 4:12.
Rating: D+.
The wrestling was nothing special here but it felt much more like a
story being told than anything else. Emma as the jaded wrestler who
has been burned by the main roster and not wanting Bayley to make the
same mistakes is an interesting story but the matches need to be a
bit better than this.
Emma
smiles as Bayley leaves.
Becky
Lynch wants to know when she gets her title shot. Could it be after
you finally win a few matches? Sasha might not be bad, but she's
certainly not this good. “Welcome
everyone to N Becks T.” I apologize for making you read a line
that horrible.
Blake
and Murphy vs. Lucha Dragons
Non-title.
You get a rare time slip
from NXT as they talk about the Dragons being on Superstars and Main
Event but obviously they can't know about the Raw appearance yet.
Murphy and Kalisto get
things going. Well at least I think it's Murphy as his tights say
Murphy but the commentary says he's Blake. Either
way both champions are sent to the floor for a big dive from Cara.
Kalisto adds a huge
moonsault and everyone is down for a few seconds.
Back
in and Blake gets some help from his partner for two on Kalisto
before we hit the chinlock. Kalisto
fights up for a rollup for two but
it's quickly back to Murphy (the commentary matches the tights) for
another chinlock. That
doesn't last long though and Kalisto finally rolls over for a tag to
Cara. Everything breaks
down and Cara kicks Buddy in the face, only to miss the Swanton. The
referee gets distracted and Murphy gets in a cheap shot, setting up
the suplex into a frog splash for the pin on Cara at 6:12.
Rating: C+.
Nice basic tag match here with both teams looking fine. There's
nothing left in NXT for the Dragons though and I have no issue with
them going down in one of their last matches in NXT. Murphy and
Blake aren't ready for the main roster yet but they're fine for
around here. Nice little match.
Sami
Zayn is in the back but Rhyno cuts him off. He doesn't care about
Zayn's vendettas because the line for the NXT Title starts behind
Rhyno.
Solomon
Crowe video.
Tye
Dillinger vs. Jason Jordan
Dillinger
swings away to start but gets sent hard into the corner for a spear,
followed by some elbows for two. We
hit the chinlock early on as Jason has already taken the straps down
on his singlet. Back up and
Tye makes a comeback with some very basic offense but Jordan muscles
him into the corner and finishes with something like a t-bone suplex
at 2:58. Jordan looked
better but that's not saying much.
We
recap Tyler Breeze vs. Hideo Itami. They've split matches so far and
tonight Hideo has been granted a 2/3 falls match. It's
a cool video but Brennan calling this historic is a pretty big
stretch.
Hideo
Itami vs. Tyler Breeze
2/3
falls. The selfie stick
gets a chant before the bell rings. The chants change to a debate
over whether Breeze is gorgeous or ratchet. Breeze
drives him into the corner to start for some shoulders to the ribs
but Hideo comes back with a running clothesline and a kick to the
chest. A running dropkick
and a running boot to the face give Itami the first fall at 2:21.
Well that was fast.
The
second fall starts after a brief break but no commercial. Breeze
sits in the corner to get a breather but it's just a ruse so the
Beauty Shot can connect for the pin at 3:42 total to tie things up.
We take a break (with an ad
for NXT at Wrestlemania Axxess next week) and come back with the
third fall in progress with Breeze stomping away in the corner. Some
forearms to the head get two for Tyler and we hit the chinlock. The
hold stays on for a good while until
Hideo fights up and avoids a dropkick.
The
top rope misses but another kick to the face gets two for Hideo.
They botch a fisherman's
suplex into a small package before going into a pinfall reversal
sequence. After the near falls they trade kicks to the face to start
and get two each with Breeze getting control. He fires off some more
kicks but Hideo screams at him. A running corner dropkick misses
Breeze but he can't hit the Beauty Shot. Now the running dropkick
connects but Hideo tries the same running boot to the face that won
him the first fall, allowing Breeze to hit another Beauty Shot for
the pin at 13:24.
Rating: C.
This got better near the end but it was pretty dull stuff getting to
that point. I really liked the ending with a callback to the first
fall, but I really didn't need to see this as a 2/3 falls match
instead of just having a long regular match. It's also interesting
to see Breeze get the pin here as Itami got the tournament win on the
big stage. Not bad but nothing special.
Overall Rating: C.
After last week's double title match show, this was pretty much a
filler episode instead of anything really that important. Sami
coming back is a big deal though and getting a feud with Rhyno is
fine enough for a filler while Owens is recovering from knee surgery.
Not much to this show but it was hardly a disaster.
Results
Rhyno b. ??? – Gore
Bayley b. Emma –
Sunset flip
Blake and Murphy b.
Lucha Dragons – Frog splash to Cara
Jason Jordan b. Tye
Dillinger – T-bone suplex
Tyler Breeze b. Hideo
Itami – Beauty Shot
Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and head over to my Amazon author page with wrestling books for under $4 at:
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Something is just off with Itami.
ReplyDeleteThe crowd doesn't really respond to him (which is hard to do in NXT), and he never really gets going in his matches. I don't know if it's just the wrong opponent, or they're not really letting him work the way he wants, or what exactly. It's not that he's having bad matches, stuff just really isn't hitting that next level.
I'm sure the language barrier hurts him a lot because he can't really cut promos which could be part of the bland crowd reaction.